Build:Dragonhunter - Radiant Trapper Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage, Mobility and Control

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on January 04, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A high damage glass-cannon Power Dragonhunter build for WvW roaming.

Skill Bar

Longbow

Sword/Shield

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

• Signet of Resolve - better defense against conditions. The signet can also be more convenient in some matchups (especially against ranged targets) because it doesn't rely on enemies triggering a trap for you to get healed.

Elite

• Dragon's Maw - it's a CC that could secure kills for you especially when combined with Procession of Blades. Most builds however have an answer to this skill and Renewed Focus lets you stay in the fight longer which makes Dragon's Maw the less popular option. On the other hand time doesn't favor you when facing tanky Cele builds, so sometimes your best option is to go all in with the traps and hope for a quick kill.

Weapons

• Axe over Sword - Blazing Edge adds another CC to the build that could be used in the Test of Faith push/pull combos, but Axe has long CDs and less damage/mobility than Sword. It's also less defensive than Sword, but the CC could compensate for that in some cases.

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Equipment

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Accessory
Marauder

Amulet
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Ring
Marauder

Longbow
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Sword
Marauder

Shield
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Stats

• On the current setup you should have ~86% crit chance with Resolution and 100% when you also have Fury (assuming full Ascended gear).

• With both Resolution and Fury you slightly overcap Precision. You could squeeze out a bit more damage from the build by replacing the 2 rings and the backpiece with Dragon stats. The build doesn't have 100% uptime on Fury though, so at times your consistency will go down a bit compared to full Marauder. It's all about tradeoffs, both are viable choices.

Runes

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Pack - better crit chance and boon duration, but slightly lower burst damage.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter - it's very close to Scholar in terms of damage, use whichever is cheaper if you're trying to save gold.

• Rune of Superior Rune of Durability - more tanky and beginner-friendly option.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Brawler - cheap middle ground between defensive and offensive runes. Could also be a decent replacement for Durability runes if you can't afford those just yet.

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Vision over Air - the build doesn't always have 100% crit chance, if you really want to make sure that your Longbow burst always crits then you could take this, but it shouldn't be necessary.

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bloodlust over Cleansing - further increases your damage if you don't mind putting some extra effort into building stacks and giving up some defense against conditions.

Consumables

Food

• - considered to be the optimal food, strong mix of sustain and damage but requires a cooking skill of 500.

• or - extra precision with an armor ignoring damage proc that also heals you.

• - defensive option.

• - offensive option.

Utility

Usage

General

• Try to stay in range, keep your distance whenever possible.

• Test of Faith is an excellent defensive skill because it's an instant source of Protection that can also be used while CC'd.

• Deflecting Shot is unblockable and may even be used to interrupt blocking skills.

• Wings of Resolve removes conditions and provides a substantial amount of healing for you and your teammates. It's also an excellent mobility tool in combat and a good way of repositioning yourself.

• Shield of Courage breaks stun and blocks all attacks in front of you, use it to relieve pressure from yourself and your team - for example, you can stand facing foes attempting to cleave downed teammates while you or your team is reviving them.

• Try to burn through all of your virtues before resorting to Renewed Focus. RF is a great panic button when you're being focused by the enemy team and you don't have any CDs left, but Dragonhunter virtues have cast times so any virtues you didn't use before RF will go to waste.

Damage

• The ring created by Test of Faith deals more damage than the initial trigger, and a significant portion of your burst damage comes from pulling/pushing foes through it.

1. Drop the trap preferably at your target's feet so that they spring it immediately and not after you already blew a CC. Consider jumping in with Symbol of Blades if they are far away.
2. Push them out of the ring with either Deflecting Shot or Shield of Absorption.
3. Pull them back in with Hunter's Verdict (chain skill of Spear of Justice).
4. If possible, swap weapons and use the remaining knockback skill too that you didn't use 2 steps before.

• You deal extra damage to enemies affected by Spear of Justice, so consider using it before hard hitting skills like True Shot.

• There's a delay on Hunter's Ward, the final strike doesn't go off immediately after you finish channeling the skill. You could even pull targets in with Hunter's Verdict to make sure they get it and can't dodge or move out right before rings appear. The final strike of this skill does heavy damage.

Sword/Shield

• This is the defensive set of the build, but still has some hard hitting skills.

• The main source of burst damage here comes from Zealot's Defense. Note that the projectiles can be very unreliable in anything but melee range.

• Symbol of Blades has many uses: vertical mobility via teleportation, symbol for cleaving, or a combo field which can be used for AoE cleansing by executing a blast finisher in it.

• Use Shield of Judgment when you or an ally is about to be focused by the enemy, or if you're already pressured. It also applies boons in a cone, try to aim it at as many allies as possible.

• As mentioned above, Shield of Absorption is mainly a combo tool, but you can also use it for general CC or to defend against some ranged attacks. It forms a dome around you for a couple of seconds, blocking projectiles. You can choose to detonate the dome with its chain skill, which will cause a bit of AoE healing.